The first of the newly-christened “Band of the Day” acts is Scotland’s Amok. Hailing from the romantic windswept, storm-lashed city of… erm… Glasgow, they’ve been going since 2004. Fortunate timing for them as, around then, classic thrash acts did seem to get a bit of a second wind and they were well placed to take advantage.
Plenty of touring and live performances took place which allowed them to fund an release their debut album Downhill Without Brakes in 2008. German label Witches Brew caught wind of the mad kilt-wearing psychopaths and picked up the album for proper distribution.
It must have done well, as they released their second album toward through the same label towards the end of 2013. Somewhere in the West continues their mission to spread the word of thrash around the land (and not just theirs – they’ll spread it anywhere that serves beer).
Clocking in at sixty minutes, it’s concrete proof that a) thrash still lives and b) you don’t need to be from the Bay Area or Germany to be producing the goods. I’d not say that Amok have a sound of their own. What they have is the classic thrash overtones from back in the day before the majority of the classic acts softened their tone.
From the promo literature, and I can’t argue with any of this having listened to the album:
The album was produced, engineered and mastered on location at Grindhouse Recordings, Hesperia, CA, USA. Somewhere In The West is an evolution of Amok’s already distinctively heavy, yet very accessible sound: the album fuses together technicality, speed, aggression, power and melody to produce a fresh outlook on modern thrash metal. Telling stories through lyrics of poverty, corruption, addiction, lawlessness and the general deterioration of the civilized human world, Somewhere In The West promises to wipe out any pre-conceived notions of what a thrash metal album is.
More details via the usual links and a sample below.
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